A Snapshot of Snape
by TheHalfBloodAuthor
Summary: A short story about the night that Severus Snape finds out that Lily Potter is dead.


Severus Snape strode towards the back door of the Leaky Cauldron, his black cape billowing about him, making him seem positively bat like. He had just arrived from the Apothecary to stock up on his potion supplies for his class storage room. You see, Severus Snape wasn't an ordinary man, he was a wizard. A wizard who taught at one of the best wizarding schools in the country, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Severus opened the door with a flick of his wand and was greeted with much surprise, and even more annoyance for that matter, with a raging party. Everyone was either laughing, dancing, singing, drinking or drunk throwing up in a corner. Several pairs of hands grabbed him by the front of his robes and pulled him inside the pub.

Severus yanked their hands off of him and wiped his hands down the front of his robes. He couldn't understand why everyone was so happy and celebrating, for these past eleven years had been darks ones. Many people died and were tortured by a man who called himself the Dark Lord, and his followers. A small man wearing a top hat of a violent shade of violet strode up to Severus, very obviously drunk.

"Severus Snape! Snape! Come join the party!" slurred, the man.

The little drunk man had Severus cornered against the wall, with nowhere else to turn. He had no choice but to speak with this idiotic fool,

"Hello, Dedalus Diggle. What is the meaning of this?" Severus gestured to the party gone wild, people were now pulling out firecrackers and setting them off right in the pub. When he looked at Dedalus he was surprised to see tears streaming down his face. _Why is this complete fool crying now?_ He then realized that Dedalus Diggle was laughing, laughing so hard he was almost on the ground, clutching his stomach and slopping firewhiskey down his front.

"I did always have a funny name. Diggle, Dedalus Diggle. Ha!" Dedalus could barely choke out his words. But before Severus could slip away, he stopped laughing and regained balance on his feet.

"This party is because You-Know-Who has fallen! He's gone FOREVER! And the one thing that stopped him was a baby boy, a little boy by the name of Harry Potter." Dedalus started grinning stupidly again.

Severus felt his blood turn to ice in his veins. No not the Potter boy, what was the Dark Lord doing at his house?

"What happened to the boy's parents? Do you know? Tell me." Severus spat out.

When Dedalus's face started to fall, Severus felt dread fill his body and grab his heart with its icy hand.

"The Dark Lord killed his parents; he killed them before they got to the boy. They were protecting him you see. But then when he got to the baby –"

"I don't care about that stupid baby!" Snape snarled. He had pulled his wand out of the depths of his robes and had now pointed it straight between Dedalus' eyes. He started to stammer something, but Severus cut him off with a quick silencing charm, how dare this lowly, disgusting fool make up such lies about the Potter family! _They couldn't be dead, it wasn't possible!_ But then Severus Snape saw something in Dedalus's eyes that made him lower his wand and stagger back against the wall. He saw that he was speaking the truth. Severus felt something break deep inside of him. With a _Crack!_ he disapparated from the pub, filled with partygoers dancing the night away.

Severus appeared in the dark streets of Godric's Hollow, he walked quickly across the dark square, cold gusts of wind raking across his body, swirling the dead leaves around him. He started walking faster and faster in hopes of finding the home of the Potters. He turned a corner sharply and gasped. The cottage was identical to those around it except for the fact that the right side of the top floor and been blown apart. Severus avoided large pieces of rubble as he ran across the lawn, his heart in his throat.

The wooden stairs creaked as Severus bounded up them, taking two at a time. He ran down the hallway and stopped short in the doorway to Harry Potter's bedroom. Severus sank to the floor moaning, "No, no it can't be, it can't be."

In the middle of the room lay the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on, her name was Lily Potter. Severus had fallen in love with her when they were only kids, but still loved her no less now. His eyes filled with tears as he slowly made his way towards her still body. Her arms were spread like an eagle's, her face showed signs of faint surprise, her mouth forming a small o. He ran his fingers through her hair while he gently caressed her beautiful porcelain face.

His body racked with fresh sobs as he slowly closed the emerald green eyes that he loved with all his heart. Severus couldn't grasp the idea of living without her and he held her hand as he wept into the night. Severus cried until he could no more, he wept until his body could weep no longer. He collapsed with exhaustion onto the floor next to his beloved, when his sadness turned into fury.

His anger was directed at the man who killed her yes, but even more at the one who promised to protect her. The man who told him that she would be safe, that no harm could come to her.

"Dumbledore" the whisper barely escaped Severus's lips, before he stood up, white faced and tight lipped. _Crack!_ With a cold, hard fury Severus Snape vanished into the night.

**Please read and review! Thanks.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the other characters. They all belong to J.K. Rowling.**


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